Therapeutic air mattresses have been used in connection with hospital beds or incorporated therein to provide patient support, reduce the likelihood of decubitus sores, and perform other therapeutic functions. These mattresses are connected to a blower or blower that pressurizes one or more inflatable portions of the mattress for a given therapeutic function. For example, the mattress depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,900 includes a pair of longitudinally extending bladders that are used to laterally turn a patient in an alternating fashion to reduce the likelihood of decubitus sores. In this application, the blower selectively pressurizes one or both of the bladders to an extent necessary to provide the desired degree of rotation or support. As will be appreciated, the pressure needed to support the patient will vary depending on a given patient's size and weight. Currently, to accommodate different weight capacities separate blowers designed to produce the necessary pressures are provided. It would be desirable to have a system that could be easily reprogrammed to support different weight capacities without having to stock multiple blowers.
In existing mattress systems, the pressure settings may include pressure increment levels that are preprogrammed on to a chip within the mattress controller. For example, an increment of 15 mm/Hg may separate high, medium, and low settings. The base pressure level may also be hard-coded on to the chip. Using the previous example, the lowest setting might be 10 mm/Hg, and the medium and high settings each being 15 mm/Hg increments from the previous setting. To change the settings that are programmed on to the chip, it is generally necessary to remove the chip and have it reprogrammed. This process requires a significant level of technical proficiency. Also, due to their sensitive nature, the chips must be carefully handled, and are prone to damage. If a setting must be changed, the caregivers generally rely on outside service people or the manufacture to reprogram the settings. During that time, the product may be out of use resulting in a cost to the caregiver. To that end, a simpler method of reprogramming pressure values for a given patient would provide greater flexibility to caregivers.
It is desirable to track the function of the mattress, blower, and controller. For example, since therapeutic beds are often operated on a rental basis, it is desirable to know the actual operating time for a given mattress. This time is also useful in determining whether a mattress or blower needs to be repaired or replaced. While such information could be tracked manually, it is highly desirable to have an automated method of monitoring the mattress system.